Researching while queer: a research note about a genderqueer lesbian conducting qualitative research in the southeastern United States

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2020

Publication Title

International Journal of Social Research Methodology

DOI

10.1080/13645579.2020.1760551

ISSN

1464-5300

Abstract

In this research note, I use an autoethnographic approach to examine the challenges of qualitative research for queer scholars, and to bring the embodied, interactive, and gendered research experience to life. I compare and contrast how my queer embodiment and identity was received, or erased, in two different research contexts, both within the southeastern United States. The first study discussed involved in-person and phone interviews with Mississippi Christians about their views of gay and lesbian civil rights. The second study included phone interviews with trans men across the southeastern United States. I discuss my experiences as a queer qualitative researcher to demonstrate why self-reflection, reflexivity, and self-care are essential to queer, feminist, and critical methodologies across qualitative research. I analyze thoughts and feelings that arose when my interviewees challenged my feminist and queer commitment to social justice and reversed the expected power dynamics in a research relationship. The goal is to help prepare queer researchers for the emotional difficulties and trauma of qualitative research as they enter the qualitative research field.

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